Sexy little Samsung (Samsung SGH-J600)

Member Name: SpoonyOh

Product:	Samsung SGH-J600
Date:	26/10/08 (46 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It'll make you a babe magnet!

Disadvantages: I'm lying through my teeth. But it is a good phone.

After my beloved Motorola W375 gave up the ghost, I had to buy a new phone. Easy enough, until you discover how much of a fickle git I can be.
Now, I could just have replaced my Moto. The 377 model is still in shops at a very reasonable £30. But here's the rub: having had that particular phone for two years, I was well aware of it's limitations (the lack of infra-red and Bluetooth was rather frustrating, plus accidentally activating the browser was a major pain). In addition, I've since had a baby, and the amount of times people have told me to make sure I've always got a camera to hand.....well, it rules out a bog-standard VGA.

So I had a bit of a criteria building up: decent camera, good network (so I stayed on PAYG with O2),) Bluetooth, and since I like my music, something decent for playing music was a plus rather than an advantage. Then comes cost. I'm a bit of a skinflint in that I can't justify blowing £200 on a phone. I decided my benchmark was around fifty nicker, less if possible. Another factor was my clumsiness. Whilst I'm built like a voluptuous ballerina (if such a thing were possible), I'm as caggy-handed as an elephant. In a china shop with knick-knacks dotted around for good measure. So a tough little phone was a must, preferably a slider or flip, since I've had both styles and prefer an obscured keypad (it's been this way since I managed to 'ping' the keypad out of an older phone).

I hit the internet and got browsing and price-checking. Being a Motorola tart, I checked out their new products first, but the Rokr just didn't do it for me. With an entire touch panel rather than buttons? Ugh, no ta.
I found the Samsung J600 quite by accident, and was impressed enough with it to want it. Trouble was, it had been superseded by more expensive models. Thank god for Argos, although their new catalogue was out, they had a few left. And you know? I paid the princely sum of £10 cash. I'd forgotten that Argos take Nectar points (although they don't give them out).

So once I had the phone, I quickly discovered the minuses, which were minimal. There's no easy way to slide the face unless you put your thumb just above the touch panel. I can see this being a downfall already. You do sometimes bash the touch panel, but only if you're the sort of person who tends to press the phone right up against your ear. Other than that, I can't really complain. The battery doesn't last particularly long, but for all the phone's functions, this is hardly surprising. The phone really comes into it's own with an SD card - you can expand the storage as much as you want to, or link your phone to a computer via the USB lead (a Bluetooth dongle is an optional extra). The SD card is a pretty essential purchase if you plan to take lots of pictures of keep lots of music files on the phone.

All in, I'm pretty chuffed with it. It looks the business and does exactly what it says on the tin. User friendly and - most importantly for me - not a bloody Nokia.

Summary: A good way of parting with your cash.

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